“I knew we had a pretty good ball club,’’ said Hodges, who was a 35-year-old assistant when Indiana State coach Bob King suffered a stroke just one week prior to the start of the 1978-79 season. “We had beaten the Soviet Union’s national team in the preseason. We were one of only four teams to beat them.

That year, Bird led Indiana State to a 33-0 record and a spot in the NCAA championship game opposite Magic Johnson and the Michigan State Spartans. Bird averaged 28.6 points per game for the Sycamores that season.

In what remains the most-watched college basketball game in history, Michigan State ended Indiana State’s magical run with a 75-64 victory in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Bird and the ’79 Sycamores remain an indelible part of Indiana State’s basketball profile.

Indiana State will play Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament’s East Regional in Cleveland, Ohio, on Friday. This will be just the third NCAA appearance for the Sycamores since the ’79 campaign.

And Bird, the blond-haired kid from French Lick, Ind? Well, he merely went onto to become one of the best basketball players in NBA history.

“The thing about Larry is he had such a tremendous work-ethic,’’ Hodges said. “He practiced hard or played hard every day. He didn’t say a lot. Brad Miley was more of the team spokesman, but Larry, when he got on the floor, he was the leader. Everybody followed his lead.’’

Bird almost never played in college. He originally enrolled at Indiana University and would have played for the legendary Bob Knight, but IU’s huge campus was too much for the small-town Bird. He left before the start of his freshman season.

Hodges developed a relationship with Bird, but still had to coax him to play for Indiana State, which is located in Terre Haute, Ind.

One day, Hodges went to see Bird and his mother’s house. Hodges recalled Bird talking about a buddy who could really play ball, but nobody knew about him because he never went to college.

“I said ‘Yeah, Larry they’re going to say that about you someday’,’’ Hodges said. “I got up and left. It’s like being a salesman. You know when you’ve made the sale. I just left and let him think about things.

“When I went back two days later, he’d made up his mind,’’ Hodges continued. “I had all the papers ready. All he had to do was sign and put it in the mail. I’d already put a stamp on it.

“Of course, giving a kid a stamp would probably be illegal today,’’ Hodges said with a chuckle.

Bird was Indiana State’s star, but the Sycamores weren’t just a one-man team. Carl Nicks, Indiana State’s guard, averaged 19.3 points. The Denver Nuggets selected him with the No. 23 pick in the 1980 NBA draft. He spent three years in the NBA.

Along with Miley, the rest of Indiana State’s starting lineup consisted of Alex Gilbert, an athletic center, and Steve Reed, a talented sophomore who averaged four assists for every turnover he committed.

“We had two guys coming off the bench; Leroy Staley and Bobby Heaton, who may have been better offensively than Brad or Alex,’’ Hodges said. “Brad and Alex were great rebounders and defenders. Your best offensive players don’t always make your best team, but if we needed offense, we could go to Staley and Bobby Heaton. It was like having seven starters.’’

Indiana State was in the national rankings, but much of the nation knew very little about the Sycamores or even their star player. In that pre-ESPN era very few games were on television.

Prior to the NCAA Tournament, Indiana State’s only appearance on national television came late in the season in a game against Wichita State.

“I had phone calls from people saying ‘My god, all this time, I thought Larry Bird was black’,’’ Hodges laughed. “He was only on the cover of Sports Illustrated.’’

Hodges said Bird was extremely driven, but not in terms of his scoring.

“The thing about Larry is I don’t ever remember him asking how many points he scored,’’ Hodges said. “But every game, he wanted to see the stats to see how many rebounds he got. We started every game knowing we were getting 25 or better from him, but he never made that a big deal. His big deal was rebounds.’’

NCAA Tournament: Mike, Donna and Bud's Take Post-Standard Syracuse University basketball beat writers Mike Waters and Donna Ditota, along with columnist Bud Poliquin, offer their perspective on the 2011 NCAA tournament, and how the Orange will fare against Indiana St. and overall.

Indiana State went into the NCAA Tournament with a 29-0 record. The Sycamores were seeded No. 1 in the Midwest Region, but in their first tournament game against Virginia Tech, they struggled.

“We were real nervous,’’ Hodges said. “It was a tight game. Alex Gilbert got a hook dunk on a rebound and everybody went crazy and the adrenaline started flowing and we beat them by 17.’’

Indiana State dispatched Oklahoma 93-72 in the next round, setting up a meeting with No. 2 seed Arkansas in the regional final. Heaton won the game 73-71 with a last-second shot in the lane.

“That was a pretty close game, but I never did feel like we didn’t have control of the game,’’ Hodges said. “They didn’t even come close to stopping Larry.’’

Although he was probably more concerned with his 16 rebounds, Bird scored 35 points on 16-of-19 shooting from the field to lead the Sycamores to a 76-74 victory over DePaul.

The national press turned the title game into a showdown between Bird and Magic.

“That was the only two anybody said anything about,’’ Hodges said. “They billed it as Magic and Larry. Magic wasn’t the player of the year in the Big 10. Greg Kelser was. He was a hell of a player until he hurt his knee.’’

Michigan State proved to be too much for the Sycamores. Bird struggled to defend Johnson. The Sycamores couldn’t match Michigan State’s size and athleticism. Indiana State went 10-for-22 from the foul line.

And Bird’s shot was off. He finished with 19 points on 7-for-21 shooting.

“A lot of people think it was a disappointing end to the season,’’ Hodges, who had won his first 33 games as Indiana State’s head coach only to lose in the national final, said. “How could I be disappointed? We lost to a great team and a great player. We made it to the Final Four. I coached a bunch of great kids.